What is Spam? Well, we all know the definition, right? It is that gigantic slug of nonsense emails that you delete every day, leaving the one percent valuable stuff (which ultimately turns out the be more like a half a percent).
Broadly-interpreted, though, Spam is *any* unwanted message. And it can come to you via a variety of media, including landline telephone, social media, and (gulp) even via your own personal device that you carry everywhere, via telephone or even text.
What many people don’t always consider (occasionally even our own AMG Alerts customers), is that when it comes to messaging personal devices, the Spam designation is highly contextual. When any message arrives at an inopportune time, it can be judged harshly. When the message has obvious benefit for the recipient, which the vast majority would, there is normally little issue. But what if, say, the president of the company decides, out of the blue, to send employees his “thought of the day”? How valuable is such a thing when you are driving, sitting down to dinner with your family, asleep, or engaged in some activity on your time and yours alone.
When access to the wireless network and device usage is paid for by the sender (the company), there are few restrictions. But wireless carriers are extremely sensitive to complaints by private account holders about “abuse”, and since the definition of that term for any individual can change from minute-to-minute, all messaging should have a certain level of scrutiny.
We counsel our customers to follow opt-in rules that we provide, which should include not only opt-out instructions,and other information, but an internal contact for questions about whatever mass-texting program you have in place. Our system provides tools for reminding employees that that the system is there (in cases where the use is infrequent) and allowing them to review their preferences and take themselves out if needed.
At the end of the day, there should be an understanding and a level of trust between the sender and the recipients about how the system will be used and what to expect. Keep an open channel with them about how the program is going, and definitely follow the “Do unto others” philosophy as it applies to message sending.